Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[tggzzz]

That’s quite cool actually. May have a look around for one of them.

Effin hot, actually. Not something for young kids, or where there's lots of alcohol.

Start by looking in a large Chinese supermarket, or search for mongolian cooking pot, or steamboat, or even hot-pot. Electric versions available, but probably not as much exotic fun.

[mnementh]

Previously in the TEA forum:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg2995954/#msg2995954   This is a little teardown of the Fluke 750A. I took it first, because there was some disturbing rattling noise coming from the inside. 

(SNIP)Output voltage switch. Here is the debris coming from:         Actually, I have no idea how to repair that thing.  If you have some suggestions, I'd be glad to hear them. Thanks.

3DP fer sherr.  Make a custom spacer, install those brass inserts in it with heat, or with epoxy. Get me or bean a sketch with some dimensions from the one that isn't shattered and I'm certain one of us can come up with something that'll work.

[EDIT] Looking again, you may be able to substitute a nylon hex standoff:    https://www.ebay.ca/sch/i.html?_sop=15&_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=m3+nylon+standoff

mnem
*toddles off to try another guerilla attack on Wally Wurlld*

[Cerebus]

... those little Sterno-powered steam tables for any kind of buffet-style food service;...

The phrase you're looking for is "chafing dish".

Nope; single dishes are called that, and sometimes don't even have a water vessel. The ones used at the BBQ and Sunday brunch were actual steam tables; 4 or 6 slots in a common water tank and the whole thing powered by Sterno instead of electricity or gas.
mnem
Bleaggh. 

Chefs and other catering folk will call those chafing dishes too. If it's plumbed into the mains gas or electricity it seems to get called a bain marie, if it runs on alcohol (like the Chef) whether individual or en masse then it seems to get called a chafing dish.

[Kosmic]

... those little Sterno-powered steam tables for any kind of buffet-style food service;...

The phrase you're looking for is "chafing dish".

Nope; single dishes are called that, and sometimes don't even have a water vessel. The ones used at the BBQ and Sunday brunch were actual steam tables; 4 or 6 slots in a common water tank and the whole thing powered by Sterno instead of electricity or gas.
mnem
Bleaggh. 

Chefs and other catering folk will call those chafing dishes too. If it's plumbed into the mains gas or electricity it seems to get called a bain marie, if it runs on alcohol (like the Chef) whether individual or en masse then it seems to get called a chafing dish.

I think "Bain-Marie" are a bit different. They are double boiler. Some kind of heating element (gas, electric, other ?) heat water and the boiling water heat your container.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bain-marie

[Cerebus]

BIG ones, like this:

[Kosmic]

BIG ones, like this:

There's water in that thing ? always thought it was only hot air.

[bitseeker]

I second that. Otherwise I will remind you of the kebob diet. Turn around slowly, cut down what protrudes ...

 

[Specmaster]

Meths meh.   

I grew up in a locality where it seemed EVERYONE used those little Sterno-powered steam tables for any kind of buffet-style food service; the church's flapjack breakfast, the Community center's weekly social, the firehouse's monthly chicken/rib fundraiser BBQ and pretty much every restaurant had at least a couple dishes near the dining areas which they kept warm with the stuff. Now THERE'S an acrid stink; the combination of how rich the Sterno burns and emetic/bitterant they put in the stuff to keep the hobos away was nauseating.

It seemed you just couldn't get away from the stinky stuff. I got to the point where I'd make guerrilla attacks on the food; fill up a tray to overflowing and run off to eat in the car or drive like a idiot to get it home for the fam while it was still hot. 

mnem

Thats what I thought I could remember, the smell from those meths fuelled steam engines always in mind smelt hence my question. I also have recollections of winos drinking the stuff from bottles wrapped up in a brown paper bag to disguise the fact that it was meths, but to me it had a distinctive smell that I didn't like.

[bitseeker]

Wow, I'm not 10 pages behind overnight. Y'all are slipping.

+1 on the hot pot. So good, except when someone directly throws ingredients in and then forgets to take them out.

[bd139]

@Specmaster: Ahh Mammod. I had one. Mine smelled awful. Anything that burned went into it from meths, solid fuel tabs, kerosine, wood, plastic, turps and I believe if I remember correctly ronseal

Just finished and aligned the K160RX kit. Was a fun one has you had to take half the radio to bits to install the module header for it. Now I’m bored.

[grizewald]

Day 5: I'm delighted to say that the ice-pick headache is now over! The mil-spec painkillers can be packed away again in readiness for the next problem that consumer grade stuff won't help with. Remaining is still a fever and a general feeling of malaise and weakness. My appetite is returning at least, but I still feel like I've been hit by a truck. Still no respiratory symptoms, so I guess I should count that as a plus.

The postal system is certainly messed up, but working very slowly.

I ordered an ESR meter from Peak Electronics in the UK on the 30th of March and they shipped it out via Royal Mail on the 31st. It left the UK on the 4th of April but was only scanned as "arrived in Sweden" by Postnord on the 9th of April. Still no movement since then. It'll turn up sometime later next week I guess.

[Specmaster]

Nice to see that you appear to be progressing nicely. Maybe you might be lucky and acted in time there, just be careful still and continue to take care. 

[grizewald]

Anyone else had this recently?

I got an alert on my mobile a couple of days ago asking me to confirm that I had requested a restore on one of my Google accounts. I assume that means that someone tried to use my email address and do a restore on an Android device. Of course, I rejected the request and immediately turned on two-factor authentication for that account, but I'm wondering if there's some new attack afoot?

[grizewald]

Nice to see that you appear to be progressing nicely. Maybe you might be lucky and acted in time there, just be careful still and continue to take care. 

Thanks. I'm still in self isolation here and my daughter has gone off to her mum for Easter, but she made sure I had everything I need and did some shopping for me before she left.

Right now I think I'll try defrosting a portion of nuclear level chilli and see if I can kill this thing with massive doses of capsaicin!

[bitseeker]

Glad to hear your condition is improving, grizewald!

I've reworked the first two posts of this thread:

• Added a table of contents to give new folks a bit of a glance at what info is there
• Moved my brief history, which used to occupy post #2, into the About section
• Relocated the extensive glossary into post #2 and linked to it from post #1
• Added the following items, which I've been saving, to the POI:
  • Fluke 8505A multimeter
  • Power Designs 2005A precision power supply
  • Cropico ESC1 1V voltage standard
  • HP 3478A digital multimeter, 2
  • HP 4332A LCR meter, 2
  • Philips PM3230 dual-beam oscilloscope
  • Heathkit IG-4244 oscilloscope calibrator
  • Fluke 750A reference divider

Hopefully, that will give us room to grow for a while.

[tggzzz]

... those little Sterno-powered steam tables for any kind of buffet-style food service;...

The phrase you're looking for is "chafing dish".

Nope; single dishes are called that, and sometimes don't even have a water vessel. The ones used at the BBQ and Sunday brunch were actual steam tables; 4 or 6 slots in a common water tank and the whole thing powered by Sterno instead of electricity or gas.
mnem
Bleaggh. 

Chefs and other catering folk will call those chafing dishes too. If it's plumbed into the mains gas or electricity it seems to get called a bain marie, if it runs on alcohol (like the Chef) whether individual or en masse then it seems to get called a chafing dish.

My father's bain marie, for use on a gas hob. I've never used it, I'm not sure he ever did!

The upper section slides down into the lower water-filled section, as per Kosmic's diagram.

[Ice-Tea]

Anyone else had this recently?

I got an alert on my mobile a couple of days ago asking me to confirm that I had requested a restore on one of my Google accounts. I assume that means that someone tried to use my email address and do a restore on an Android device. Of course, I rejected the request and immediately turned on two-factor authentication for that account, but I'm wondering if there's some new attack afoot?

Got three authentication SMSs from Facebook for that. Pretty sure they called me later that day.

[worsthorse]

This whole thing has also proven that some of the folks on here I've always suspected are nutjobs are, and it's also brought some more out of the woodwork that I wasn't aware of.  I'm constantly flabbergasted that people who have the ability to exhibit the rational reasoning that's required for any engineering subject like electronics can go so far off the deep end in grasping irrational beliefs in related fields (e.g. We have actual 5G causes Covid conspiracy nuts on here who have been here for quite some time rationally discussing engineering.).

If you think this place is bad, hop over to sci.electronics.design!

There are, however, some extremely competent contributors and contributions, e.g. Win Hill of TAoE fame. TAoE x-Chapters was improved by people there, and people there are cited favourably in both books.

yeah, i got splashed by the gore there once too often and decided that the SLR¹ is way too low to make it worthwhile in spite of people like win hill.

¹Signal-to-Lunatic Ratio

[worsthorse]

... those little Sterno-powered steam tables for any kind of buffet-style food service;...

The phrase you're looking for is "chafing dish".

Nope; single dishes are called that, and sometimes don't even have a water vessel. The ones used at the BBQ and Sunday brunch were actual steam tables; 4 or 6 slots in a common water tank and the whole thing powered by Sterno instead of electricity or gas.
mnem
Bleaggh. 

Chefs and other catering folk will call those chafing dishes too. If it's plumbed into the mains gas or electricity it seems to get called a bain marie, if it runs on alcohol (like the Chef) whether individual or en masse then it seems to get called a chafing dish.

My father's bain marie, for use on a gas hob. I've never used it, I'm not sure he ever did!

The upper section slides down into the lower water-filled section, as per Kosmic's diagram.

hmmm... back in west pennsyltucky we called that a double boiler.

[grizewald]

¹Signal-to-Lunatic Ratio

Signal to Lunatic Ratio!

Love it!

It's sad, but the ability to employ rational and critical thinking is a very rare thing these days. If anyone ever starts a discussion with "I read on facebook/the internet/some newpaper/.../" I just stop listening. Source criticism should be a part of the school curriculum and rated as a specific subject so that you can be sure people actually understood the lessons.

[med6753]

Look what FedEx just delivered. A whole bunch of goodies. Gonna take me a while to sort thru it all.

I wanted this collection of near junk for the 4 probes with PL-259 connectors to use with the Type CA plug-in. Turns out there's three 10X P6000 probes and one 10X P6017 probe. I did a quick test and one of the P6000 probes is apparently dead and open. No big deal. Will try to fix and if not hopefully the coax/PL-259 section is OK and can cobble together a 1X probe. 

The other 3 probes with BNC's are two 10X P6060 probes and one 10X P6006 probe. Haven't given them a quick test yet.

All this for about $11 USD plus tax/shipping. 

[tggzzz]

This whole thing has also proven that some of the folks on here I've always suspected are nutjobs are, and it's also brought some more out of the woodwork that I wasn't aware of.  I'm constantly flabbergasted that people who have the ability to exhibit the rational reasoning that's required for any engineering subject like electronics can go so far off the deep end in grasping irrational beliefs in related fields (e.g. We have actual 5G causes Covid conspiracy nuts on here who have been here for quite some time rationally discussing engineering.).

If you think this place is bad, hop over to sci.electronics.design!

There are, however, some extremely competent contributors and contributions, e.g. Win Hill of TAoE fame. TAoE x-Chapters was improved by people there, and people there are cited favourably in both books.

yeah, i got splashed by the gore there once too often and decided that the SLR¹ is way too low to make it worthwhile in spite of people like win hill.

¹Signal-to-Lunatic Ratio

I just mark the boring persistent offenders as "ignore subthread", so I see neither them nor replies to them.

But some of the lunatics can be amusing, and some of the put-downs erudite.

[Saskia]

@grizewald good that you are getting better.
Got some note about the plants I ordered. They arrived at my friend's place and she has taken good care of them. I ordered a few pepper plants:

https://www.chili-shop24.de/carolina-reaper-chili-pflanze?c=103
https://www.chili-shop24.de/chili-zucht/chili-pflanzen/3235/bio-trindad-scorpion-moruga-yellow-chili-pflanze?c=103
https://www.chili-shop24.de/chili-zucht/chili-pflanzen/3236/bio-thai-red-chili-pflanze

Hopefully I can harvest enough to do some special potato chips for the rabid colleagues at the workplace ...

[grizewald]

@grizewald good that you are getting better.
Got some note about the plants I ordered. They arrived at my friend's place and she has taken good care of them. I ordered a few pepper plants:

https://www.chili-shop24.de/carolina-reaper-chili-pflanze?c=103
https://www.chili-shop24.de/chili-zucht/chili-pflanzen/3235/bio-trindad-scorpion-moruga-yellow-chili-pflanze?c=103
https://www.chili-shop24.de/chili-zucht/chili-pflanzen/3236/bio-thai-red-chili-pflanze

Hopefully I can harvest enough to do some special potato chips for the rabid colleagues at the workplace ...

Wow! They're all real weapons grade chilli peppers.

Your colleagues must be real masochists.

(I hope the chilli I'm about to eat furthers my progress to recovery!)

[mnementh]

... those little Sterno-powered steam tables for any kind of buffet-style food service;...

The phrase you're looking for is "chafing dish".

Nope; single dishes are called that, and sometimes don't even have a water vessel. The ones used at the BBQ and Sunday brunch were actual steam tables; 4 or 6 slots in a common water tank and the whole thing powered by Sterno instead of electricity or gas.
mnem
Bleaggh. 

Chefs and other catering folk will call those chafing dishes too. If it's plumbed into the mains gas or electricity it seems to get called a bain marie, if it runs on alcohol (like the Chef) whether individual or en masse then it seems to get called a chafing dish.

I can only go by what other folks I've met in the industry call them; while I have not ever been anything like a chef, I have taken two balls-deep excursions into the food service industry. In both cases, the folks at the commercial kitchen supply called them all steam tables regardless of fuel source except the single/double unitized things used for catering.

The larger ones with soldered copper tanks are sold separately from the heat source; you buy the tank,  frame, stainless top with cutouts, stainless tubs & lids individually, then buy (or build yourself, as I did because they didn't have LP available) the modular heat source separately depending on whether your food is cooked in or only maintained at safe serving temp by the table. The same frames, tanks and stainless parts are also used with ice or plumbed with refrigerated water for salad fixins.

You may well have some knowledge of haute cuisine I don't; I know a porter from a sous chef (by role, not on sight unless the porter happens to have a broom or dirty dish in his/her hands), but only because I watched that kitchen rat movie with my son a thousand times.

mnem
"One can get too familiar with veh-geh-tah-bles, you know!!!" ~Chef Skinner